Answer to "what does POSIX stand for?"

Hal Jespersen hlj at posix.COM
Fri May 4 22:37:47 AEST 1990


From: hlj at posix.COM (Hal Jespersen)

In article <663 at longway.TIC.COM> you write:
>
>>"... The term POSIX is expected to be pronounced pahz-icks, as in positive,
>>not poh-six, or other variations."
>
>Note that this assertion appears only in the rationale and the foreword,
>not in the body of the standard.  This is because the committee could not
>standardize a pronunciation, and in fact had no consensus on what it might be.
>Nonetheless, there is a small clique that considers it their duty to enforce
>what they regard as the correct pronunciation, even though they don't all
>pronounce it the same way themselves.

As the author of that footnote, I can say I know of only one person
involved in the development of the POSIX standards who disagrees with
the "Positive about POSIX" pronunciation.  Since that person is also
in the clique referred to above, I guess you can say that last sentence
is actually correct, John.  :-)  I would be interested to see your reaction
if people started pronouncing UNIX or USENIX differently than their
originators intended.

Hal Jespersen

==========================================================================
The opinions expressed in this message are my own and do not necessarily
reflect those of the POSIX Working Groups or the IEEE.  To receive an
official interpretation concerning an approved IEEE standard, contact the
Secretary, IEEE Standards Board, P.O. Box 1331, 445 Hoes Lane, Piscataway,
NJ 08855-1331.

Volume-Number: Volume 19, Number 103



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